Anthony Rota, speaker of Canada’s lower house of parliament or House of Commons, has resigned following an incident last week where he pointed to a former Nazi Waffen-SS soldier in the chamber and singled him out for praise as a Ukrainian freedom fighter who “fought the Russians then, and is fighting them now.”

The entire audience including prime minister Justin Trudeau and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland gave Jaroslaw Hunka a prolonged standing ovation. Trudeau later called the incident embarrassing to Canada and fodder for Russian propaganda.

Rota, a member of Trudeau’s Liberal Party, fell on his sword to save the Trudeau government sagging in the polls in recent months, while commentators pointed out every single MP and member of the cabinet at the special sitting of the House of Commons should’ve been able to do the basic math and conclude Hunka, whose Canadian immigration documents use the alternate surname Gunka, had fought on the side of the Nazis, Canada’s declared enemy during World War II. In point of fact Hunka served in a Waffen-SS detachment in the province of Galicia (Galitsiya) in the Ukraine under the command of Stepan Bandera, the 14th Grenadiers aka Galicia Division, and committed atrocities and mass murder against Jews and Poles.

Before Rota resigned, Trudeau’s Liberal Party MPs in the lower house of the Canadian parliament attempted to strike the entire incident from the parliamentary record. Opposition Conservative Party MPs shot this down as an attempt to whitewash the story. In addition, breaking with their usual practice, the Canadian Government in Ottawa did not release to the media any details of Trudeau’s conversation with visiting Ukrainian president Zelensky. Usually and almost always, according to Canadian journalists, Canada’s Ministry of Global Affairs (Foreign Ministry) releases full or almost full transcripts of all of Trudeau’s meetings with visiting foreign heads of state and leaders.

None of the other MPs and cabinet members who stood and applauded the Canadian Ukrainian Nazi veteran have offered to resign despite being able to do the math and having at least a vague knowledge of Canada’s role in World War II.

The House of Commons gathered that day to listen to a speech by visiting Vladimir Zelensky, the current head of state of the Ukraine. Hunka didn’t offer the traditional “sieg heil” salute but did raise his fist in recognition of the praise being showered upon him. Zelensky also applauded the Ukrainian Nazi veteran who is now 98.

So far Russian media have responded by pointing out Canada and the Soviet Union were allies during World War II, and have reiterated Canadian deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland’s grandfather was also a Ukrainian who fought on the side of the Nazis, at least as a Nazi propagandist.

The debacle in the Canadian House of Commons took place during the Jewish holiday of atonement Yom Kippur and as Lithuania marks the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the Vilnius ghetto. Canada provided safe haven to Helmut Rauca, the butcher of Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-largest Nazi ghetto, who selected Jews for mass murder during the Great Aktion when over 10,000 Jews were murdered in a 24-hour period at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas. Rauca died before he ever faced trial for his war crimes following an extradition request from West Germany..

Update: The Russian ambassador to Canada has floated the idea of seeking Hunka’s extradition to stand trial for war crimes.